Should You Pay For Social Media?

A recent study by Cornell and Yahoo! reports that out of the 175 millions users on Twitter 90 million of those accounts have exactly zero followers.

Looking at “The Glass Half Full,” that’s a 50%+ Failure Rate!

This most likely means that many people join, give up and quickly forget about their account. If this is a business account its time to revitalize it! The study also found that the URLs that last the longest on Twitter are those linking to videos and music, such as content from sources like YouTube and Last.fm. So from a 40,000 foot evaluation, these accounts are heavy in ENGAGING content and post on a regular basis!

Virtually ANY business owner can set up accounts on many of the free social media platforms, and this offers them fantastic opportunities. If someone wants to learn SEO; there are 1,640,000,000 sites for that. If your company has decided to try social media, you too can set up Facebook and Twitter accounts and start tweeting and posting away. In addition, maybe you own a brick and mortar business and claim management of it on Foursquare – SURE…  then watch the clicks trickle in.

Having a social media account isn’t enough to do the job.

I can empathize. People want to do their own marketing, advertising and PR to save money. Unfortunately (or fortunately – however you want to look at it), What they quickly realize is that time IS money and lots of time is going to be spent trying to learn these new platforms. Once a person gets their account set up, they usually find themselves at a stand still.

“I did everything I was supposed to…  a Website, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp and a Youtube accounts. NOW WHAT?”

And so, the dilemma starts.

This is why businesses should have a team on their side that knows how to quickly implement the best strategy for their specific industry and can follow up with relevant analytics. No longer is social media the “Next big thing.”  Many companies are finding that building a ROI (return on investment) campaign is the next challenge. A lot of agencies can build social media campaigns and back them up with verifiable results. Also, think of this: It’s a FACT that not every business needs a brick and mortar location just as not every business needs Twitter. So you need to find the right team that can get you the tools that will do the job right!

Yes, social media is “free” but social media marketing is not. If you are a new start up with zero capital by all means use every free service you can get your hands on, but if you plan to make this venture a TRUE INVESTMENT for your future, consider hiring a partner to take that investment (money, time, brand, etc.) to the next level. 

These are real communication services with real results, so it does take a budget to do it right.

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing